Top Ten stories of the year on The 42.
Number 10: A great year for coffee in DC.
Each year we get better and better coffee options here in the city. The Coffee/Riot series is one of my favorites on the blog and the last two shops I profiled are outstanding. There are others I need to visit (Qualia, Sova), but for now please give these two a read and then try them out in real life:
Coffee/Riot: Bourbon Coffee
Coffee/Riot: Chinatown Coffee Company
Number 9: Columbia Road gets a makeover. Sort of.A short, well travelled stretch of Columbia Road NW in Adams Morgan did a complete 180 this year. It had been home to an eclectic mix of businesses: Ritmo Latino, Body Basics, Popeye's Chicken, Citibank, Beauty Island, Mattress Discounters, Foot Locker and a sad looking Safeway. Over the course of the last 11 months, all those businesses except for Safeway have closed. In their places came two national chains, a CVS and T-Mobile. Safeway had a major renovation outside and in. The area is still bustling, but there has been an 80% turnover of the street scape in less than a year. Amazing.
Columbia Road Loses String of Businesses
T-Mobile Replaces Ritmo Latino
Safeway Exterior Renovation
Number 8: Fiesta DC is out, then back in!
In one of the most bizarre sequences, Fiesta DC --the summer fest capping Hispanic Heritage Month-- left Mount Pleasant for good, then promptly returned. The festival was drawing well over 40,000 visitors and had outgrown the narrow and intimate Mount Pleasant Street corridor. Organizers decided to move it to roomy 14th Street; and increase the length to 10 blocks. But paperwork, construction and other issues got in the way. So back to Mount P for one more year. Who knows for 2010!? It's wait and see all over again.
Fiesta DC Moving to Columbia Heights
In Reversal, Fiesta DC Back in Mount Pleasant
Fiesta DC 2009 [Photos]
